Newly-appointed Bishop Bibi Commits To Lead Buea Diocese

By Hope Nda

Newly-appointed Bishop of Buea, Mgr Micheal Mansue Bibi, has expressed a firm commitment to work with the Catholic community of the diocese which he has served as Apostolic Administrator for a year now.

Bibi was declared Bishop on Tuesday, Jan. 5, during a brief occasion at the Regina Pacis Cathedral in Buea and will be leading the oldest Catholic Diocese in Cameroon.

“It is more of a challenge that the Holy Father (Pope) has given to me but I know that with the support of the grace of God and in collaboration with the priests, all the religious and the lay faithful in the Diocese of Buea, we will continue to work to make the Diocese to be what it is supposed to be,” Bishop Bibi said to the press.

Before being appointed Bishop, Micheal Bibi has been serving as Apostolic Administrator of the Buea Diocese since December 2019. During that period, he was also serving as the Auxiliary Bishop of the Bamenda Archdiocese.

He told reporters that he relies on the support of the clergy and Christians of the diocese in order to carry out his spiritual mission.

“When I came here I met people of faith, I met a very generous people, I met very committed priests and religious, laity and they have given me support within this period. I want to use this opportunity to thank each and everybody for all the support and assistance I have received and to call each and every one of them to continue to pray for me and to give me the support that I need so that together we will continue the work in the diocese,” he said.

Scores of Catholics, who congregated at the Cathedral on Tuesday to know who their anticipated Bishop would be, shouted in excitement when the Apostolic Administrator was reinstated as Bishop.

“I’m very happy because I started working with him and it will just be a continuation in a very good collaboration, a continuation in guidance because he is someone who follows up activities, who pays attention to what we do and each time there is any corrective point to add, he does not hesitate,” said Ernest Tchinda, Director of CARITAS.

Father Micheal Mbui is also one of the clergies who worked with Mgr Bibi while he was still Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese. He says all they expect from him is to lead the diocese through a spiritual path.

“We are expecting that he is going to do the work of shepherding, the work of sanctifying and the work of teaching. Those are the three main things that each Bishop should do. So as a Bishop of the Diocese, he should be able to teach doctrine, he should be able to govern Christians of this particular territory and he should be able to sanctify, that is, making holy everything in this diocese,” said Father Micheal Mbui.

Mgr Michael Bibi was born in July 1961 in Bamessing, Northwest region, and grew up under typical Catholic doctrine, having attended the Bishop Rogan College in Buea. He was ordained a priest in the year 2000, in 2017 was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Bamenda, then appointed Apostolic Administrator of Buea in December 2019.